Fixing Our Broken Planet is the first new gallery to open at the Museum in almost a decade. Visitors will explore the biggest challenges to the health of the planet, as well as to our own health, and discover science-backed solutions from nature that will help us to create a more sustainable world.
Visitors to the gallery will journey through four zones – energy, health, materials and food – getting up close to objects from across the Museum’s collections chosen by scientists to tell the story of our impact on the natural world and showing how we can play a part in protecting its future.
Each object reveals an important story on our relationship with nature; like the bird nest entwined with discarded plastic showing how our behaviour is impacting bird populations, to the flora and fauna found 5,000m below the Pacific Ocean in an area targeted for deep-sea mining and the parasitic worms that impact the health of 1.5 billion people – a figure thought to be on the rise due to climate change.
Conversations between scientists and environmentalists on topics such as UK biodiversity decline play in film booths offering different viewpoints and lived experiences while the conversation space encourages visitors to share their views on the planetary emergency and see how their responses compare with other visitors.
For audiences at home, the gallery’s complementary online tool, Find Your Climate Action, helps to discover personalised ways to contribute to a healthier planet that also benefits the individual and their community.
The Fixing Our Broken Planet gallery is in the original 1881 Waterhouse building and required full restoration. The transformation revived its original Victorian features while using sustainable materials and methods to bring the space back into public use. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport's Public Bodies Infrastructure Fund (PBIF) awarded the Museum with significant funding to rebuild the gallery whilst retaining its heritage and charm.
A wide variety of trusts, foundations, companies and individuals are supporting the Fixing Our Broken Planet gallery and programme including Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), part of UK Research and Innovation, Wellcome, GSK and Ørsted.
Visitors should book a free ticket in advance online for guaranteed entry to the Museum. Members, Patrons and Corporate Supporters have priority access and do not need to book general admission or exhibition tickets.
Images © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London
